S. 5379119th CongressRead twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

A bill to provide the Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security with authority to attract highly qualified experts.

Introduced: Aug 7, 2026

Latest action: Aug 7, 2026

Latest Action

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

Congress.gov Bill Record ↗Official Bill Text ↗

Primary Sponsors

Cosponsors

Recorded Actions

Linked Votes

Plain-English AI Summary

What this bill means

Generated from the official bill text to make the legislation easier to understand.

Summary Ready

What this bill does

S. 5379 gives the Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security temporary authority to directly recruit and hire technical experts into the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). Under the bill, the Under Secretary is authorized to: * Conduct an annual study to pinpoint specific technical skills and knowledge gaps at BIS that are difficult to fill using standard federal hiring procedures. * Bypass standard civil service competitive hiring rules to directly hire experts from outside the civil service to fill those gaps. * Offer flexible basic pay rates outside standard executive branch pay classification rules. The bill also requires the Under Secretary to submit initial and annual reports to specific congressional committees detailing staffing gaps, recruitment efforts, hired personnel, and mission impacts.

Who it affects

* **Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS):** The agency receives special hiring powers and flexible pay authority, alongside mandatory study and reporting responsibilities. * **Technical Experts:** Highly qualified applicants with specialized skills seeking employment at BIS can be hired outside standard competitive civil service processes. * **Congressional Committees:** The Senate Banking and Homeland Security committees, as well as the House Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees, will receive required reports from BIS.

What would change

* **Hiring Procedures:** BIS will be permitted to recruit and appoint technical experts directly, bypassing standard civil service competitive hiring requirements. * **Pay Structure:** The agency may set basic pay rates for these specific roles up to the maximum allowable rate for senior-level federal positions (including locality pay), without being restricted by standard executive branch pay classifications. * **Mandatory Reporting:** The Under Secretary must report to Congress within 180 days of enactment and annually after that. Reports must detail identified skill gaps, previous civil service recruitment efforts, the qualifications and roles of experts hired under this law, and an evaluation of their impact on the agency's mission. * **Security and Ethics Standards:** No security, background check, qualification, or ethics rules would change. Applicants must still meet standard background check and security clearance requirements, as well as federal ethics and conflict-of-interest laws.

Money or funding

The provided summary does not state a specific dollar amount for overall appropriations or legislative spending. Regarding individual pay rules: * The bill authorizes basic pay up to the maximum senior-level federal position rate (plus locality pay adjustments). * Total annual compensation for any individual employee hired under this special authority is strictly capped at the annual salary of the Vice President of the United States.

Important exceptions or limits

* **Headcount Limit:** BIS may employ a maximum of **25 employees** under this special authority at any one time. * **Term Limits:** Individual appointments cannot exceed **5 years**. * **Expiration (Sunset):** The authority to make new hires under this bill expires **5 years** after the law is enacted. * **Savings Provision:** Employees hired before the 5-year expiration date are allowed to complete their individual terms (up to the 5-year maximum per person), and their basic pay rate cannot be reduced during continuous service. * **No Ethics or Security Exceptions:** The bill explicitly does not waive applicant qualification requirements, security clearance or background checks, or federal ethics and conflict-of-interest regulations.

Plain-English bottom line

This bill gives the Bureau of Industry and Security temporary, 5-year authority to directly hire up to 25 specialized technical experts outside normal civil service rules and offer them flexible pay up to the Vice President's salary, provided standard background, ethics, and security checks are met and progress is regularly reported to Congress.

This summary was generated by AI from the official bill text. It is intended to make legislation easier to understand and does not replace the original legal language.

AI model: gemini-3.6-flashUpdated: Sep 23, 2026Review official bill text ↗

Official Summary

Official legislative summary associated with this bill.

No official summary is currently available.

Primary Sponsors

Members listed as primary sponsors of this legislation.

Jon Husted

Republican • Ohio

Primary Sponsor

Aug 7, 2026

Cosponsors

Members who joined this legislation as cosponsors.

No cosponsors found.

Recorded Actions

Official legislative actions recorded for this measure.

Aug 7, 2026

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

Official source ↗

10000Aug 7, 2026

Introduced in Senate

Official source ↗

Linked Votes

Roll-call votes associated with this legislation.

No roll-call votes are currently linked to this bill.

Lobbying Activity

Federal lobbying disclosures that explicitly identify S. 5379. These records show reported lobbying involving the legislation; they do not establish that every member of Congress, sponsor, or voter was personally contacted.

COMPUTER & COMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION

Registrant: COMPUTER & COMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION

2nd Quarter (Apr 1 - June 30)

Jul 21, 2025

Reported lobbying issue

Computer Industry: S 5379 TRAIN Act, Kids online safety/privacy, HR 633 TAKE IT DOWN Act, HR 8187, Intimate Privacy Protection Act, Patent Reform, Artificial Intelligence, Content Moderation, Digital Replicas, Privacy, Section 230, Digital Trade Barriers, Tmobile/UScellular Transaction, Privacy Working Group, space and spectrum policy, S 4875 No Fakes Act, Export Controls, DMA, S 278 Kids Off Social Media Act S. 2220 Prevail act, S 4533 Restore Act, S 2140 Patent Eligibility Restoration Act, S 281 TICKET Act, S 2114 Foreign Adversary Communications Transparency Act, HR 699 Email Privacy Act, Korea's Platform Regulation Bill, immigration reform, Immigration: Skilled Immigration Reform Trade (domestic/foreign): International Trade Issues, International Digital Policy, USMCA, Gatekeeper, Canada Online News law, Korrea Cloud Certification, AUSFTA, Korea Platform Regulations, Copyright/Patent/Trademark: Copyright and Patent Reform, Copyright enforcement, Copyright Modernization, Intermediary Liability, Section 301, IPR, RAIA, S2891, WIPO, Music Licensing, Prevail Act S2220, S1409, NO FAKES Act, S1409, generative AI, PADRA, S2140 Patent Eligibility Restoration Act, Taxation/Internal Revenue Code: Online Tax, Tax reform Telecommunications: Open Internet, Broadband deployment, Special Access, Peering Act, Save thee Internet Act S3195 (Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act, HR 8152 American Data Privacy and Protection Act, HR 8575 and S 2427 Fair contributions Act, SHOPSAFE, INFORM Consumers Act, T-Mobile / USCellular transition Intelligence: International Communications Privacy, hacking back, encryption, Cross boarder Protection, Export Controls

Government entities reported: Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Federal Trade Commission (FTC) HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Intl Trade Administration (ITA) Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) SENATE U.S. Copyright Office U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commerce, Dept of (DOC) State, Dept of (DOS) White House Office

Reported filing-period amount: $80,000

This is the amount reported for the filing/reporting period and should not be interpreted as money spent lobbying this bill alone.

A bill to provide the Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security with authority to attract highly qualified experts.

What this bill means

What this bill does

Who it affects

What would change

Money or funding

Important exceptions or limits

Plain-English bottom line

Official Summary

Primary Sponsors

Cosponsors

Recorded Actions

Linked Votes

Lobbying Activity

COMPUTER & COMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION

COMPUTER & COMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION

UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP

UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP

UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP

UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP

RECORDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA

RECORDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA

UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP

RECORDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA

RECORDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA

INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF THEATRICAL STAGE EMPLOYEES

INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF THEATRICAL STAGE EMPLOYEES

INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF THEATRICAL STAGE EMPLOYEES

INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF THEATRICAL STAGE EMPLOYEES